TRUE DETECTIVE readme

"True Detective" is a role-playing mod. You'll travel light: a trench coat, an old fedora, a pistol in your pocket or maybe brass knuckles, and you're ready to go. It's especially suitable for playthroughs which emphasize adventuring with Nick Valentine or Piper.

This mod includes clothing, coffee, and a .38 Special revolver. It will support different styles of play. Early investigative agencies intentionally hired people with criminal backgrounds, and in fiction "private eyes" could range from heros to antiheros to guns for hire. You might become a defender against criminals and corruption, a stealth expert, or a hardboiled thug.

Outfits accept ballistic weave; you'll need it. Adventuring in street clothes is difficult. "True Detective" adds the Level 1 Science perk as an optional qualifier for ballistic weave, so it's possible to choose not to join the Railroad.

You can install "True Detective" at any point in play. However, I recommend using it with "Start Me Up Redux" at character generation. (See "Recommended Mods" below.)

PLAYING THE MOD:

A battered trench coat and a fedora can be found in several locations, in a brown leather briefcase. (Check the Red Rocket.) .38 Special pistols are also in several locations. More advanced equipment is scarce, but can be made at a chemistry workstation once you have enough skills. (If you find extra revolvers or trench coats, keep them; they make enhanced versions easier to get.)

As you advance in skill you can craft or find outfits suited to several character paths.

You can cook up a decent coffee substitute using purified water and razorgrain. You'll need to have a coffeepot in your inventory.

LIMITATIONS:

I have not been able to add weapon mods to the .38 revolvers without having them change back into "Western Revolvers." However, once you have enough Gun Nut skill they can be upgraded at the chemistry workstation.

I have also eliminated weapon mods from the advanced unarmed knuckles so they make sense as stuff in your pocket: but I have compensated by increasing their damage.

USEFUL PERKS:

Iron Fist, Locksmith, Toughness, Lady Killer/Black Widow, Intimidation, Gun Nut, Gunslinger, and Sneak all suit a private investigator character.

ADVANCED EQUIPMENT:

Trench coats:
Hard-boiled private eye: enhances strength.
Can be found in a rented room, near a diner,
or constructed at the chemistry workbench.
Stealth: requires good stealth skill to construct.
Incorporates stealth field when sneaking.
Noir: enhances charisma, in the sense of scariness and intimidation.

Revolvers
.38 Special Heavy Duty Pistol
.38 Detective's Special Pistol

Knuckles
Stunning Blow
Knockout Punch

RECOMMENDED MODS:

START ME UP REDUX https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/56984
"True Detective" was designed with "Start Me Up Redux" in mind. "Start Me Up" offers new options for beginning play. You are not required to start as the Sole Survivor, but can begin the game in the Wasteland as one of many character types. Options especially suited for a private investigator include Gangster, Drunk, Mercenary, Drifter or Thug, Thief, or Chinese Agent. (In detective fiction as well as the real world, the background of a private investigator was sometimes unsavory. Otherwise unattractive character types might then prove an interesting basis for a player character.) A police background would also be appropriate, but is not available. You might instead choose a background which would account for why you left the police -- or were thrown out.

"True Detective" also works well with a Minutemen alliance. Many of the settlement quests against raiders seem like the kind of thing a hard-hitting private eye might be hired to do.

PREWAR BINOCULARS https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/17819
Adds functioning binoculars to the game.

CREDITS:

Mugs with coffee are based on heirflick's "Coffee" https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/12126
which is used by permission.